Experiment IV Meters

Purpose To determine the resistance of a galvanometer whose full-scale current is known. Also, to convert the galvanometer first to a 100 mA full scale Ammeter and then to a 5 V full-scale Voltmeter from Ohm's law. Equipment 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Galvanometer with a full scale reading of 500 A (0.5 mA), 2 decade resistance boxes A 40 slide wire rheostat Resistance wire Standard ammeter and voltmeter Switch, wires and power supply

Note: Bring linear graph paper. Theory A galvanometer is an instrument for detecting small currents. It consists essentially of a coil of fine wire mounted so that it can rotate in the field of a permanent magnet. When current flows through the coil, the resulting magnetic force on the coil windings creates a torque on the coil that makes it rotate until equilibrium is established between the torque on the coil and that exerted by a restoring spring. The angle of rotation of the coil thus will depend on the current flowing through coil and a needle attached to coil can be calibrated to give the current. (In many designs, the angle of rotation of the coil is linearly proportional to the current, but for the galvanometer used in this lab you will note that this is not quite the case.) A typical analog ammeter consists of a sensitive galvanometer with a low resistance called a shunt connected in parallel with it. The shunt allows currents to flow through the ammeter that would otherwise burn out the galvanometer. The shunt also allows the ammeter to have a low resistance so that it will have a small effect on the circuit whose current is to be measured. (To use an ammeter the circuit must be broken and the ammeter inserted between the break.) A typical analog voltmeter consists of a sensitive galvanometer connected in series with a resistance known as a multiplier. Since a voltmeter is placed in parallel with the voltage to be measured, it should have a high resistance so that it does not appreciably alter the circuit being measured. The range or full-scale reading of an ammeter or voltmeter can be changed by changing the shunt or multiplier resistor. From knowledge of the full-scale galvanometer current Ig, the

galvanometer resistance Rg, and the desired range of the meter, the needed shunt or multiplier resistance can be easily calculated by means of Ohm's law. Procedure Part I Determination of Rg. To determine the internal resistance, Rg, of the galvanometer you will use the half-scale method. Wire the circuit as in Figure 4.1 using decade boxes for Rp and Re. Set the decade resistance boxes to their highest value, then turn on the power supply and adjust to 4 V. With the switch S open, gradually reduce Re until the galvanometer reads full-scale current Ig = 0.5 mA. Now close the switch and gradually reduce Rp until the galvanometer reads exactly one-half of full scale or Ig/2 = 0.25 mA. Record Rp and Re. Read the last page of this write-up on the half-scale method and use the result given there to calculate Rg from Re and Rp. If you do not get a value for Rg between 200 and 400 , repeat your work. Part II Conversion of your galvanometer to an ammeter with a full scale reading of 100 mA. In an ammeter the same voltage is across both the shunt resistor and the galvanometer. Use this fact and Ohm's law to calculate the value for a shunt resistor Rs that will make an ammeter with a full-scale reading of 100 mA. Using resistance wire with linear resistance supplied by your instructor and cut a piece of wire long enough to give Rs plus a little extra to allow connections to be made at the galvanometer binding posts. Wire your ammeter into the circuit shown in Figure 4.2. For your load resistor R L set the decade box to 40 .

Slowly vary the power supply voltage from zero to several volts so that your ammeter reads from zero to 100 mA. Make a calibration curve for your ammeter by plotting the readings of your ammeter versus the readings of the standard Ammeter. Part III Conversion of your Galvanometer to a

voltmeter with a full-scale reading of 5 V. Use Ohm's law to calculate the value of the multiplier resistor that must be in series with your galvanometer resistance Rg to give full-scale deflection, Ig, when the voltage applied to the series combination is 5 V. Wire the circuit as in Figure 4.3, using a decade box for the necessary multiplier resistance, Rm:

By varying the applied voltage V of the power supply, plot a calibration curve as in Part II of your voltmeter versus the standard voltmeter. Answer the following questions and include with your report: 1. What is the resistance for an ideal ammeter? 2. What would be the resistance of an ideal voltmeter? 3. Given an ammeter with a full-scale range of 1 Amp and an internal resistance of 100 , what shunt resistance is needed to increase its range to 100 Amp? Half scale method First one has (see figure 4.4), I = Ig and Ip = 0 1. V = IgRg + IgRe = Ig (Rg+ Re) (Rp out of circuit), With Rp in the circuit and current through meter = Ig 2. I = Ig + Ip Since the meter and Rp have the same voltage on them, IgRg = IpRp so Ip = Ig Rg/Rp. Insertion of Ip into 2 then gives

3. In parallel, Rg and Rp have an equivalent R given by

4. Now V = I (R + Re). Substitute I and R from 3 and 4 and equate result to result of 1 which also = V

RgRp + ReRp + ReRg = 2RgRp + 2ReRp

RgRp + ReRp = ReRg, or 1. Objectives. The objectives of this laboratory are a. to be able to characterize a galvanometer in terms of its internal resistance and current sensitivity. b. to be able to convert a galvanometer into a voltmeter having a specified full-scale range.

2. Theory. a. A D'Arsonval galvanometer is a current sensing device. The galvanometer contains a coil of wire in a magnetic field which will experience a torque when a current passes through the wire of the coil. The coil is attached to a pointer and a spring so that the amount of deflection of the pointer is proportional to the current in the wire of the coil. b. The galvanometer is characterized by its internal resistance, Rg, and its current sensitivity, K. The current sensitivity is the amount of current that must be applied to the galvanometer to produce a deflection of the pointer through one major division of the galvanometer scale. Current sensitivity has units of A/div. The internal resistance and current sensitivity of the galvanometer will be measured using the circuits shown in Figures 1 and 2.

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

c. In the circuit shown in Figure 1, the value of the load resistor, R1, will be set to a specified value and the potential difference provided by the power supply will be varied to obtain a fullscale deflection of the pointer of the galvanometer. The voltage required to obtain full-scale deflection will be recorded. The circuit shown in Figure 2 will be constructed by adding the shunt resistor, Rs, in parallel with the galvanometer. Without changing the applied voltage, the load resistance will be varied until the galvanometer again has a full-scale deflection. The new load resistance, R2, will be recorded. In both circuits, the potential difference supplied by the power supply is the same, as is the current passing through the galvanometer (full-scale deflection in both circuits). Application of Kirchhoff's rules to the two circuits results in the following expression for the value of the internal resistance of the galvanometer: Rg = Rs ( R1 - R2 ) / R2 The current sensitivity can be obtained from the measurements on circuit 1 as K = VFS / {N ( R1 + Rg )}

where N is the number of major divisions of the galvanometer scale for a full-scale deflection of the pointer. d. A galvanometer can be converted into a voltmeter by adding a resistor, RV, in series with the galvanometer. The series resistor, RV, is selected to provide a given value of the potential difference for full-scale deflection using the following relationship: RV = VFS / (KN) - Rg e. In this experiment, 1) Multiple measurements of the internal resistance of the galvanometer and its current sensitivity will be made using the method described above with a variety of load resistances, R1. The mean and standard deviation of these multiple measurements will provide the measured value of the internal resistance. A multimeter will be used to check the value of the internal resistance. 2) The multiple measurements from the circuit shown in Figure 1 will be used to provide the data required to determine the current sensitivity. 3) Using the values of Rg and K, the value of the series resistance, RV, required to convert the galvanometer to a voltmeter with 5-volt maximum will be calculated. 4) The accuracy of the experimentally constructed voltmeter will be checked against the measurements of a multimeter using the circuit in Figure 3 below.

Figure 3.

3. Apparatus and experimental procedures. a. Equipment. 1) D'Arsonval galvanometer. 2) Power supply. 3) Multimeters (2) 4) Resistance box. 5) Leads. b. Experimental setup. Figure 1 provides the circuit for the determination of the potential difference required to obtain a full-scale deflection of the galvanometer when the load resistance is R1. Circuit 1 is modified as shown in Figure 2 by the addition of the shunt resistor in parallel with the galvanometer to determine the value of R2 required to reestablish full-scale deflection with the same potential difference as that used with circuit 1. The circuit in Figure 3 is used to test the accuracy of the experimental voltmeter.

c. Capabilities. Capabilities of the equipment items listed in paragraph 3a will be provided by the student. d. Procedures. Detailed instructions are provided in paragraph 4 below.

4. Requirements. a. In the laboratory. 1) Your instructor will introduce you to the equipment to be used in the experiment. 2) Record the number of major divisions of the galvanometer scale. 3) Measure the value of the resistance of the shunt resistor, Rs, with a multimeter. 4) Use the resistance box t with the resistance box to make this setting (do not assume the values on the switches or dials of the resistance box are accurate). 5) Construct circuit 1. 6) Vary the potential difference provided by the power supply to obtain the full-scale deflection of the pointer of the galvanometer. Record this voltage. 7) Construct circuit 2 by adding the shunt resistor in parallel with the galvanometer. 8) Adjust the value of the resistance provided by the resistance box to again obtain full-scale deflection of the pointer of the galvanometer. Do not vary the potential difference provided by the power supply; vary the load resistance. 9) Remove the resistance box from the circuit and measure the resistance, R2. 10) Remove the shunt resistor from the galvanometer. 11) Calculate the internal resistance, Rg, of the the galvanometer and its current sensitivity, K.

12) Find the mean of the calculated values of Rg and K. 13) Use the multimeter to measure the "actual" internal resistance of the galvanometer. 14) Calculate the value of RV (to be placed in series with the galvanometer) to provide a fullscale deflection of the galvanometer pointer when the potential difference across the

experimental voltmeter is 5.0 V. We will use the term "experimental voltmeter" to mean the series combination of RV and the galvanometer. 15) Construct the circuit in Figure 3. Vary the potential difference provided by the power supply from 1.0 V to 5.0 V in 1.0 V increments as measured by the experimental voltmeter and record the readings for the potential difference obtained from the multimeter. b. After the laboratory. The items listed below will be turned in at the beginning of the next laboratory period. A complete laboratory report is not required for this experiment. Para 2. Theory. Derive the equations for the internal resistance of the galvanometer. Para 3. Apparatus and experimental procedures. Provide descriptions of the capabilities of equipment used in the experiment (para 3c). Para 4. Data. Data tables are included at Annex A for recording measurements taken in the laboratory. A copy of these tables must be included with the lab report. Provide the items listed below in your report in the form a Microsoft ExcelTM spreadsheet showing data and calculations. The spreadsheet will include: 1) The values of N and Rs. 2) A table of values of VFS, R1 and R2. 3) Calculations of Rg and K for each set of measurements. 4) Calculations of the mean for Rg and K. 5) Calculation of the value of RV for a full-scale deflection of 5.00 V. 6) The value of Rg measured with the multimeter. 7) Calculation of the percent discrepancy between the measured (using the two circuits) and actual value (using the multimeter) of Rg. 8) A table of the potential differences measured for the circuit of Figure 3 for the experimental voltmeter (measured) and the multimeter (actual). 9) Calculations of the percent discrepancies in the potential differences obtained using the experimental voltmeter and the multimeter. Para 5. Results and Conclusions. a. Results. 1) A statement of the measured value of Rg.

2) A statement of the percent discrepancy in the measured value of Rg. 3) A statement of the value of K. 4) A statement regarding the accuracy of the experimental voltmeter. b. Conclusions. Description of sources of error in the experiment.

Annex A Data 1. Number of major scale divisions. N = __________ .

2. Value of shunt resistance,

3. Measurements required to determine Rg and K. VFS (V) 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000

4. Measurement of Rg using a multimeter.

5. Comparison of potential difference measurements. Vexp (V) 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 Vmulti (V)

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